Amusing/Ridiculous Muzzleloading Misconceptions...

[4575wcf]

The longer you tamp 'em, the harder they shoot.

 

[Sam squanch]

I do grind black powder into a fine dust for matchlock priming- very carefully!

 

[springfield art]

Smooth bores can’t hit a human silhouette past 50 yards…

ALL smoothbores? I bet there's gonna be several guys replying to this stating that they've done exactly that.

 

[springfield art]

Actually they proved that modern made, sporting use black powder should not be ignited by a commonly occurring amount of static electricity. ☺

Powder magazines were known to explode quite well from static electricity prior to the installation of lightning rods in the 18th century.
Pyrotechnics assembly workers wear grounding equipment when at their work stations, and throughout the assembly buildings. Dust from BP just as wheat dust in a grain elevator WILL go WHOOSH from static electricity.

This is important as every now and then you will read about a person who is trying to, for some odd reason, make 4F by use of a mortar and pestle on a larger sized powder. Doing that, might create the dust needed and >>>>>>

LD

Lightning strikes aren't static electricity. Please find and read The Bevel Brother's article in Muzzle Blasts magazine.

 

[springfield art]

The 18th Century hunters using what we call "smooth rifles", guns that were sighted, looked and used just like a rifled arm, no doubt hunted deer and perhaps enemy humans successfully at that distance.

 

[tom_in_vt]

ALL smoothbores? I bet there's gonna be several guys replying to this stating that they've done exactly that.

I know, this thread is about ridiculous things you’ve heard. Meaning that this isn’t something I believe….

 

[mark_fare]

i was at the range one day, down the end shooting a .54 hawken i had just put together. trying out 100 gr. loads. was taking a little break when a women and a young boy [ 12 to 14 ??] took a bench about 2 away. they uncased a bolt action .22 a were shooting away. i reloaded a fired a shot .with the boom and all the smoke the boy was startled and i heard him ask his mother what kind of gun that was, her serious reply was THATS AN ELEPHANT GUN SON they than moved further away.

I was shooting my Brown Bess at the range and this woman was watching me. She remarked, "Thats an elegant gun." I was in love !

 

[Britsmoothy]

Lightning strikes aren't static electricity. Please find and read The Bevel Brother's article in Muzzle Blasts magazine.

What is it then, a leak from a sub station or what?

 

[4575wcf]

I think you can grind priming powder safely. With a wooden rolling pin on a wooden cutting block. Maybe even a granite rolling pin for more pressure.

 

[Woody Morgan]

I think you can grind priming powder safely. With a wooden rolling pin on a wooden cutting block. Maybe even a granite rolling pin for more pressure.

If it's mama's rolling pin and cutting block I'd call that anything but "safely".

wm

 

[TFoley]

I was shooting my .577cal unmentionable one morning when a member turned up for his once-a-year zero shoot - something that cost him an annual membership fee the same as mine - and I shoot three or four times a week.

Turns out he was a professional deer-stalker, and as such was often used as an instructor by the British Deer Society. This organisation is the standards-setter for deer management in the UK, and to get a 'license' to take deer [no tags here, BTW] requires at least the lowest grade of competence in stalking deer, shooting them and dealing with the results afterwards.

Well, he watched me booming away with my 600gr bullets and eventually came over. How fast are those things going? I told him, about 1200 fps. Waaay too slow to do any damage to a deer then.... I remarked that bullets going the same speed, but 200gr lighter, were quite happily taking North American Bison today, to the point of them dropping in their hoofprints, right there.

He scratched his head in disbelief, couldn't believe I wasn't pulling his leg.

Very sad, I thought, as he walked off.

 

[toot]

when will they ever end ?

 

[springfield art]

I know, this thread is about ridiculous things you’ve heard. Meaning that this isn’t something I believe….

You're right! I was asleep at the keyboard! Thanks!

 

[SOLANCO]

I have to ask why you'd want to shoot a robin.

Because he was a kid at the time.

 

[SOLANCO]

Lightning strikes aren't static electricity. Please find and read The Bevel Brother's article in Muzzle Blasts magazine.

Suggest a visit to the restored powder magazine in Charleston. Copper - not steel - bands on the powder kegs. Brick arched roof designed to take the blast and fall in instead of bombarding the neighborhood.
State of the art for when BP was not only king, but also the only thing.

 

[SOLANCO]

I was shooting my .577cal unmentionable one morning when a member turned up for his once-a-year zero shoot - something that cost him an annual membership fee the same as mine - and I shoot three or four times a week.

Turns out he was a professional deer-stalker, and as such was often used as an instructor by the British Deer Society. This organisation is the standards-setter for deer management in the UK, and to get a 'license' to take deer [no tags here, BTW] requires at least the lowest grade of competence in stalking deer, shooting them and dealing with the results afterwards.

Well, he watched me booming away with my 600gr bullets and eventually came over. How fast are those things going? I told him, about 1200 fps. Waaay too slow to do any damage to a deer then.... I remarked that bullets going the same speed, but 200gr lighter, were quite happily taking North American Bison today, to the point of them dropping in their hoofprints, right there.

He scratched his head in disbelief, couldn't believe I wasn't pulling his leg.

Very sad, I thought, as he walked off.

The ignorance of the anointed.

 

[bud in pa]

I enjoy eating game. I also buy my meat at the super market. I wish that I was good enough at hunting to feed myself all year round! I keep trying, although I don't think that I have much time left to improve my skills. When I go to the super market i tend to wear my special shirt. It has a picture of a deer and underneath it says " Hey Vegetarian My Food Poops on your Food"!

 

[TFoley]

Re: post #291 - Mr Knowall was there again yesterday. He came over to me and asked me if I was still shooting my old-fashioned guns - obviously the fact that I was shooting a Musketoon eluded him. Yup, says I, and I have a few historically documented facts for ya.

1. Before the arrival of the White Man in the West, the Buffalo population was assessed to be around 30,000,000.

2. By 1884 that had somehow been reduced to 325. Read that again - THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE.

3. By breeding just twelve of the survivors, the now-widespread Buffalo locations can 'boast' a total of around 500,000.

Every single one of those animals was probably shot with a black powder rifle, like my Model of 1885 unmentionable, or one of Mr Sharps' designs.

In fact, there is a short movie on Youtube which clearly shows a buff dropping instantly on impact from a large BP bullet.

So, I went on, to me, the thought that the local deer here in UK [no elk, of course] weighing in at no more than 400# at most, were somehow resistant to a shot that could turn a half-ton buff into burger meat just didn't add up.

His answer would have amazed anybody here. It certainly shut ME up.

He said, animals in those days were not used to firearms, and had no in-built resistance.

Clearly, he is a man to avoid in future.

 

[Whitworth]

Re: post #291 - Mr Knowall was there again yesterday. He came over to me and asked me if I was still shooting my old-fashioned guns - obviously the fact that I was shooting a Musketoon eluded him. Yup, says I, and I have a few historically documented facts for ya.

1. Before the arrival of the White Man in the West, the Buffalo population was assessed to be around 30,000,000.

2. By 1884 that had somehow been reduced to 325. Read that again - THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE.

3. By breeding just twelve of the survivors, the now-widespread Buffalo locations can 'boast' a total of around 500,000.

Every single one of those animals was probably shot with a black powder rifle, like my Model of 1885 unmentionable, or one of Mr Sharps' designs.

In fact, there is a short movie on Youtube which clearly shows a buff dropping instantly on impact from a large BP bullet.

So, I went on, to me, the thought that the local deer here in UK [no elk, of course] weighing in at no more than 400# at most, were somehow resistant to a shot that could turn a half-ton buff into burger meat just didn't add up.

His answer would have amazed anybody here. It certainly shut ME up.

He said, animals in those days were not used to firearms, and had no in-built resistance.

Clearly, he is a man to avoid in future.

Well there's dumb and then there's really dumb. Think you found the really dumb.

 

[ML48]

Re: post #291 - Mr Knowall was there again yesterday. He came over to me and asked me if I was still shooting my old-fashioned guns - obviously the fact that I was shooting a Musketoon eluded him. Yup, says I, and I have a few historically documented facts for ya.

1. Before the arrival of the White Man in the West, the Buffalo population was assessed to be around 30,000,000.

2. By 1884 that had somehow been reduced to 325. Read that again - THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE.

3. By breeding just twelve of the survivors, the now-widespread Buffalo locations can 'boast' a total of around 500,000.

Every single one of those animals was probably shot with a black powder rifle, like my Model of 1885 unmentionable, or one of Mr Sharps' designs.

In fact, there is a short movie on Youtube which clearly shows a buff dropping instantly on impact from a large BP bullet.

So, I went on, to me, the thought that the local deer here in UK [no elk, of course] weighing in at no more than 400# at most, were somehow resistant to a shot that could turn a half-ton buff into burger meat just didn't add up.

His answer would have amazed anybody here. It certainly shut ME up.

He said, animals in those days were not used to firearms, and had no in-built resistance.

Clearly, he is a man to avoid in future.

Yeah, yeah, here we go...let's blame the white man for everything.
Also, fact is the Indians would run herds of Bison off cliffs by the thousands. So not all were shot with rifles by the WHITE GUYS!! And that 30,000,000 was not in the mid 1800's.